Between the Lines
by Wild Hope
Summary: On the night of Scorpius Malfoy's birth Draco sits down and writes letters to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. He receives one letter back from Hermione saying nothing but "I forgive you." It is the first letter of many. In the middle of the night he waits...
1. Part One

Draco Malfoy sat in a darkened room, the only light was from the moon shining through the window on the opposite of the room. He was sitting at his desk, a whimsical smile on his face. He knew that he should probably be going back to bed. He didn't want his wife, Astoria, to catch him in his office at this hour. She might get suspicious. That had always been a fear of his. Nearly every night, in the middle of the night, he would wake himself up out of bed and rush to his office, where usually there would be an owl waiting for him, a piece of parchment tied to one of its legs. Draco looked up as he heard the distinctive "tap, tap" at the window.

Draco's heart was beating with excitement. He rushed over to the window and opened it allowing the large eagle owl to enter. As soon as the letter was safely in Draco's hand the owl flew across the room. He felt like a school boy again as he held that letter. The only time he ever felt this happy was when he got a letter from his son, Scorpius when he was away at Hogwarts. In the last eleven years Scorpius had become his entire reason for living. He had never known love until the moment that he had held his son for the first name. A part of him. The best part of him. Draco had been determined to be the father to Scorpius that his father had never been to him.

It had been hard. There had been all of those instincts that he'd had to put aside. Lucius had never been there for Draco, he had always held him to unbelievably high standards and when Draco had failed Lucius hadn't let him hear the end of it. He had been so controlling that Draco hadn't felt like his own person. Not until Scorpius was born did Draco finally rebel against his father. There was no way he was going to let Lucius Malfoy have any control over the most precious things in his life.

The night Scorpius was born Draco had decided that he was tired of being a person that he couldn't stand. There was nothing about himself that he liked, nothing about his life that he liked. He was in a cold, loveless, marriage. The only thing he had in common with Astoria was Scorpius and she tried to have as little to do with there son as possible. Draco didn't dislike his wife, they co-habitated Malfoy Manor without fighting, without speaking, without anything really. The night his son was born Draco had realized how empty his life was, how many things he had done wrong. How many people he had hurt.

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger had been at the top of his list. In the middle of the night he had sat down, holding his newborn in his arms, and wrote all three of them a letter. He had apologized for all of the things that he had done and all of the mistakes that he had made. It had made him feel good to let it out, like allowing poison to seep out from his wounds. It had taken all of his courage to actually send the letters out. He didn't know what he had hoped to accomplish. He just knew that a weight had lifted off of his shoulders that day.

He hadn't gotten any response save one. Draco wasn't surprised that Potter hadn't written him back, or Weasley for that matter. Hermione Granger, however, she had surprised him. The day after he had sent the letters out he had gotten one back from her.

"I forgive you. -HGW"

Draco still had that piece of parchment tucked away in the locked bottom drawer, along with all of the other letters she had written him over the last year. There had been many, and he cherished everyone of them. Those three little words that she had written to him had lasted him for years. Randomly, when he was in a rather foul mood, he would pull out that piece of parchment and it would make him feel better just to look at it.

Just to know that someone in the world forgave him.

It had been about ten years since that letter when one night he had been sitting alone in his office in misery. Scorpius had been at Hogwarts for three days and Draco had sorely missed him. He had heard of people suffering from "empty-nest syndrome" but he had never figured that he would be one to go through it. Being away from Scorpius for just that short amount of time had driven him insane. It was that night that he had written her again. He wasn't sure why he had done it. Of all the people who would understand him he felt like she would.

Scorpius' first day, Draco had seen her standing on the platform with her friends, all of them saying goodbye to their children. For some reason he thought that she would understand the misery that he was going through. She actually had. They had commiserated for a few weeks through letters about how much they missed their children. He had shared with her his joy over Scorpius being sorted into Ravenclaw. Ten years of raising his son and his greatest hope was that he would be sorted into any house but Slytherin. Being in that house had done nothing but bad things for Draco and he didn't want his son to go through that. He didn't want the reputation of Slytherin to sully the great person that he knew Scorpius was, and would be.

Hermione had told him how her own daughter had been sorted into Ravenclaw as well. Throughout the beginning of the school year they had written each other, almost daily. At first it had been the usual, talk about their children. Draco delighted in having someone who could understand the pride that he felt in Scorpius. It was nice to share that with someone. Draco spent a large amount of his time in seclusion. He had very few friends, very few people to talk to, and it was nice to share that, even if it were only through letters.

Slowly the content of their letters had begun to change from talking about their children to something more personal. He remembered the day about six months ago, around Valentine's day. Apparently she and Weasley, her husband, he still couldn't believe that she had married him, had gotten in a bit of a fight and she had vented to him in the middle of the night. Ever since that night they had been sending each other letters in the middle of the night.

Which is what they were doing right now. He broke open the seal and opened the parchment. He so much looked forward to reading what she had to say. His last letter to her had been an important one. He hoped he would get answer to his question. He began to read:

I'm sitting here in front of the fireplace. Rose and Hugo have fallen asleep on my lap. I was reading them a story. I am so happy to have them both home with me. I don't think I will be able to stand to send Rose back to Hogwarts in a few weeks. She misses it though, I can tell. I don't know what I am going to do when Hugo goes in a year. I will miss him so much.

I was thinking about you earlier. About what you said. I really... I really don't know what to say. You have become such a joy to me. I never thought I'd tell you that but it's true. I can't wait to get your letters and I can't wait to respond back to you. I can't tell you how many nights I've stayed awake long into the night writing you while I should be sleeping. Right now being one of them.

Your last letter... I still don't know what to say. I can't even begin to tell you how I felt inside while reading it. Or the tears that came afterwards. I need to see you. I believe it's going on seventeen or eighteen years since I've talked to you face to face. I need to talk to you.

I'll give you my answer then.

Draco sat there holding the letter. His heart pounding. She wanted to see him? It was strange but he was afraid to see her. He was afraid that if he talked to her face to face then somehow she would remember all of the reasons why she hated him. Still he had to know the answer.

He had to know If Hermione Granger-Weasley was in love with him too.

* * *

Thank you for reading Part One of this story, there will probably only be one or two more parts until the end but I hope you liked it anyway. If you enjoyed this and haven't read my other two Hermione/Draco story: 'Twilight and Shadows' and 'Elusive Awakenings' check them out, I think you might enjoy them. Thanks again for reading!


	2. Part Two

Hermione Granger-Weasley sat in her living room staring off into the flames in the fireplace. Her two children were laying on her lap, fast asleep. Rose and Hugo usually fought like cats and dogs but lately they had been behaving. Hermione thought it was because they had missed each other over the school year. It had been Rose's first at Hogwarts and Hugo had been lost with no one to pick on him. He still got to see Lily, Harry and Ginny's daughter, but still it wasn't the same thing as his big sister. Who, Hermione knew, he secretly adored.

It had been a wonderful Summer for the three of them. Hermione loved spending time with them and hearing all of Rose's stories about Hogwarts. The frequent letters had been nice but Hermione still loved hearing about Rose's Professors and school work. It had been hard to keep Hugo from feeling left out so Hermione made sure that they did lots of things that Hugo wanted to do. So far this summer they'd gone to see the Quidditch World Cup, visited Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour in Diagon Alley more times than she could count and there had even been two trips to Hogsmeade.

Hugo was much like his father, while Rose very much took after her. Hermione was very proud of her children and couldn't wait to see the people that they would grow up to be, yet at the same time she wanted to keep them little forever so that they would never leave her. That was the conflicting existence of a parent. You wanted them to grow up and be independent but there were also all of those memories that made her long to keep them children forever. The first broom ride, the first trip to Diagon Alley, all of those times that they had needed their mother.

With a heavy sigh and a flick of her wand she lifted her two sleeping children into the air and then into their beds. They lived in a nicely spacious cottage simply called Burrow Cottage, as it was very near the Burrow, in fact the only thing that separated the two was the Orchard. That still left quite a bit of space between the two dwellings, giving Ron, Hermione, and the children enough distance from the main house that they didn't feel suffocated.

Her children adored living so close to Molly and Arthur and Hermione also enjoyed the fact that she was so close to her in-laws. Especially during the holidays. Ah, the holidays, it was the most wonderful and terrible time all at once. Harry and Ginny would bring their three children, Percy and Audrey also had two children, as well as George and Angelina's two, not to mention Bill and Fleur's three and Rose and Hugo. That meant about twelve rambunctious little ones running around. Not that all of them were little anymore. She didn't know which was worse, the little children or the moody teenagers. She generally got through the holidays with a never ending supply of headache relieving potions and a good sense of humor.

School would be starting again in a few weeks and that meant the big, week-long, send off. It had become sort of a Weasley tradition to get all of the kids together for the last week of summer vacation. There was never enough room so there were tents pitched all around the Burrow for the children and the adults. During the day there were picnics and barbeques and tons of games and stories told around a campfire. They were all looking forward to it.

Hermione walked through the darkened silent house and back into the living room. She didn't think that she could ever do anything to tamper with the strong bond she had with the Weasley's. With a sigh she sat crossed legged on the sofa, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands. She stared into the flames wondering if Draco would write her back tonight.

Probably not.

Sometimes he was so open with her and other times he was so evasive. This was her fourth time asking if they could meet face to face. This time was of course different. The other times he hadn't professed his love to her. Again she felt the familiar aching emptiness inside when she thought about that. There was so much to think about, so much to consider when it came to him. He had done so much to hurt her and her friends when they were growing up. Sometimes it was still hard to believe that he had grown into that man that had sent her such lovely letters.

Hermione got up from the couch and walked over to the wall that was covered in shelves that were covered in books. There were books about Muggle Law and Magical Law, tons of histories about this and that, books on spells and potions, biographies and works of fiction. These were only the books that could be read by anyone. There was still the study which was cluttered with still more books. Hermione flicked her wand at the large volume entitled "A study of Law in the 18th century. Volume 2." It moved off the shelf and floated towards her. She grabbed it and then resumed her seat back on the sofa.

Hermione opened the book and it was hollow inside but for a bundle of letters. She looked longingly at them, both hating to read them and loving it at the same time. She picked up the letter that was on top of the stack. It was her favorite, even in its simplicity she liked it best. It was dated December 19th, the day that she and Ron had picked Rose up from Kings Cross station for the Christmas holiday. It simply read:

You are beautiful. -DM

Hermione had glimpsed him in the crowd that day, his hair the same color as it had always been, standing out in stark contrast to his black robes. It had been just a glimpse but she had cherished the sight of her secret friend.

Secret friend. She would be lying if she said that was all he was.

It wasn't that they were having an affair because they weren't. She had asked him to meet her in Diagon Alley for coffee several times and he had denied her. She couldn't say that if given the opportunity, if they were alone together, she wouldn't give in to what she felt. She loved Ron dearly. Even after all of these years he was still so very close to her heart.

There was just something missing. There had always been something missing.

Passion. Intensity. "Loud" love. She didn't know why she called it loud love but in her head it was fitting. Her love for Ron wasn't loud, it was very quiet. Not that it was a bad thing, it just wasn't a fulfilling thing. Sometimes she wanted to feel love wash over her like waves on a beach. Consuming her, crashing against her. What she had with Ron was something like a brook. It was slow, and steady, always there, never wavering. Sometimes she just wanted more.

Draco gave her more. Just saying his name in her head sent tingles through her insides. She picked up his most recent letter, the one at the bottom of the pile. The one she had just sent off a reply to. Her heart beat loudly as she opened it. Part of her was afraid that if she re-read it she would discover that she had imagined everything that he had said.

She began to read the neat, precise, handwriting that she had come to know as his.

Dearest Hermione,

The sun has just set and darkness is falling and I think of you. I always think of you. This letter is going to be shorter than usual. I can't stand to keep this from you a moment longer. Sometimes, I think you feel the same way. I try to read between the lines of everything you say. Wondering if I am imagining it. Hoping that I am not. I am in love with you. You have to know that I am in love with you. I've never connected with another person the way that I have with you. I never thought that I could feel anything for anyone but my son and I was wrong.

Now that I've written the words they seem so much easier to write again. I love you. I love you. I love you Hermione. What I really need to know is, do you love me too? I know how you feel about your husband. I'm not asking to replace him. I just needed to tell you that. Whatever your answer is. I just wanted you to know. That I love you.

-DM

Hermione folded up the letter and put it back inside of the book. She should have gone to bed long ago but she had stayed up writing Draco and now it was time that she get some sleep. Hugo wanted to go to Diagon Alley in the morning and she had promised him a trip. She secretly hoped that Draco would respond back tomorrow night. That he wanted to see her as much as she wanted to see him. Then he would have his answer.

When she saw him she would know the answer.

* * *

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed, feel free to review if you did. Part 3 will be the last part and I hope you all look forward to finding out how this ends.


	3. The End

Draco looked at the brick wall behind the Leaky Cauldron and then he tapped the bricks in the sequence that would allow the wall to open and reveal Diagon Alley. Scorpius was nearly jumping in excitement as he did each time they got to visit the magical place. The wall moved, revealing the hustle and bustle of the street.

Draco and Scorpius walked down the street as Scorpius pulled him this way and that, wanting to show him all of the wonderful and marvelous things that he was discovering. He looked much like his father had at the age of twelve. They were both blond haired, fine boned and fair-skinned. The only difference was that Scorpius had bright blue eyes as Draco's were usually a subdued gray.

That was as far as the similarities went. Draco had not been a happy child and it had showed in the way that he had behaved towards everyone. Scorpius was everything Draco hadn't been and he was very proud that his son had turned out that way. The only negative thing that anyone could say about Scorpius was that he talked a lot. Draco attributed that to the fact that he had grown up as an only child and was simply making up for lost time.

Scorpius was exclaiming over a brand new broom, one that Draco was going to give him as a gift for doing so well his first year at Hogwarts. He was so proud of his son. He still worried about the bad influences that could be found in his life. Mainly that of his Grandfather. Lucius no longer stayed at Malfoy Manor but the times he visited during the summer were a time of dread for Draco. He knew that Scorpius was a smart boy, he was in Ravenclaw for a reason, but he still worried that Lucius might manipulate Scorpius into being someone that he wasn't.

Lucius Malfoy, after all, was a master manipulator.

However, Draco was the better father.

Scorpius was pulling Draco down the street and they were just outside of Flourish and Blotts when Draco could have sworn he'd seen her hair. He felt his heart drop to the pit of his stomach... had it really been her? Part of him desperately hoped that it was while the other part wanted it to be anyone else but her. He was scared.

He was scared that if Hermione saw him again then all of the bad feelings would resurface. Perhaps she had only befriended the letter writer and not the real person behind them. He knew it was a silly fear but a real one all the same. Maybe she would see him and feel nothing. At Hogwarts he had done so much to her and her friends that he found it hard to believe that it was easily forgiven, let alone forgotten.

He didn't want her to look at him and see who he had been.

"Father, can we go inside? Please? I just saw Rose, I knew she would be here!" Scorpius said excitedly.

"What?" Draco asked, unable to hide his surprise. He knew that Rose Weasley and Scorpius were friends, they were, after all, the same age and in the same house. That he expected to see her here was news to him.

"Well, you said that she couldn't come over and that I couldn't go over there and we haven't seen each other in ages, _ages, _father. So we decided to meet here today so that we can see each other. It was her idea. All she had to do was tell her little brother to ask their mother for ice cream."

Draco sighed, torn between amusement and exasperation. So this little trip had been planned for the specific purpose of them seeing each other? How sneaky of them. "Go on, I'll be inside in a minute." Scorpius needed no more bidding.

Draco stood looking in the window. He could see them now and it was her. Just as lovely as he had remembered. He saw Scorpius run up to Rose and excitedly begin talking. Hermione turned at their voices and when she saw him her eyes widened. Immediately her eyes frantically began to scan the crowd and finally they landed on him.

He was sure that his heart was going to stop.

They looked at each other for what felt like forever. He wanted to go inside and talk to her but his feet were rooted to the spot. What was he going to say? More importantly what, if anything, was she going to say? A motion caught his eye and he realized that Scorpius was motioning for him to come inside. He obviously wanted to make introductions. Draco took a deep breath and then walked inside and towards them.

The store felt unbelievably hot and Draco cursed himself for wearing black robes. If he wouldn't have felt silly doing it, he would've pulled out his wand and done a cooling charm on himself. He tried to keep his eyes on anything but her, and it was so difficult. He didn't know why her presence was affecting him in such a way. He regretted not meeting her sooner. At least then he would've had the advantage of planning out something to say.

"Father, this is Rose Weasley and her mother Mrs. Weasley, and that little boy over there is Rose's brother Hugo," Scorpius said pointing to a little red-headed boy that was sitting on the floor looking at a book.

"It's nice to meet you, Rose." He looked up at Hermione and couldn't bring himself to call her 'Mrs. Weasley'. Before he could come up with an appropriate greeting she smiled.

"It's nice to see you again, Draco." It was the first time that he had ever heard her call him by his name. Not Malfoy, but Draco. It felt odd hearing her say it. The sound of her voice sent chills through his body.

"It's nice to see you again as well." He couldn't bring himself to call her Hermione either. He had said her name so many times in his head but saying it out loud, and in her presence, was an entirely different matter. He almost wanted to revert back to just calling her Granger.

"Can we go and get ice cream together?" asked Rose looking up at her mother. Draco didn't know which answer he wanted more, a yes or a no.

"Would you like to?" asked Hermione looking up at him, he could've sworn that she knew his every thought, his every fear, his every want. He studied her face, committing to memory every single detail of her face. The arc of her eye brows, the length of her lashes. The slope of her nose, the shape and color of her lips. How in the world could he say no to her?

"Yes I would," he managed to say, much to Scorpius' delight.

They sat together at a table with an umbrella sticking out of the middle of it to provide a bit of shade. The children were playing by a fountain that sat in the center of a small square, leaving him and Hermione alone with the finished cups of ice cream. He gave her a quick glance and then turned his attention back to the fountain. The water was multicolored and would start spraying in random directions, soaking anything in its path but drying a few seconds later. Scorpius, Rose, and Hugo were having a wonderful time running away from the water, then running towards it, then screaming in glee as it hit them.

"I have enjoyed your letters. I was hoping for another one last night but having you here in person is much better," Hermione said. Draco looked over at her and couldn't help but smile. The nervousness was subsiding and being replaced with a tentative happiness. He had been waiting a whole year to see her, to talk to her, to hear her voice, and here she was. A dream come true.

He was trying to gather control over his tongue but there was so much that he wanted to tell her. So many things that he had written that he wanted her to hear. It was hard enough not to reach over the table and grab her hand and declare that he was in love with her. They were in public and their children were only a few feet away and it didn't seem like the best place to do such things.

Which lead him to thoughts of having her alone. Thoughts that he knew that he shouldn't be having but that he couldn't help.

"Thank you for writing me back all those years ago. I don't know if I can thank you enough for what you have been to me." He had told her that many times in his letters but it was something that he thought needed repeating. The fact that she had forgiven him had such an impact on him. He wasn't sure if he could ever convey how much that meant to him.

"I think that I would have regretted it for the rest of my life if I hadn't."

He wanted so badly to reach out to her. To hold her in the way that he yearned, to have her pressed close to him as he whispered that he loved her. He still didn't know what the answer to his question was. Did she love him as well? She had said that if they met in person she would tell him. Looking at her now he wasn't so sure that he knew the answer.

Draco wanted to believe that there was something in the way that she was looking at him but he couldn't be sure. Regardless of her answer he knew things between them couldn't go any farther than they already had. They were both married, she loved Ron, and the Weasley family, he knew that. He also knew that she would never leave him. He had accepted that long ago. It didn't stop him from wishing that things were different. Not a day went by that he didn't wish he could go back in time, back to Hogwarts, and find someway to become then what they were now.

He had to ask. He had to know how she really felt about him. Despite the fact that in the big scheme of things it would mean nothing it would mean everything to him just to know that he wasn't alone.

"About the question that I asked you..." he began as he felt his heart pounding loudly in his chest. "Do you have an answer?" She was quiet for a moment and he looked at her and he knew before she even said a word. Never in his life had anyone ever looked at him like that.

"Yes. The answer is yes."

**THE END**

* * *

Yes, I know I am a cruel, horrible, lady for ending the story there. Please do not pelt me with tomatoes. Especially rotten ones. I hope you enjoyed it. This story has been floating around in my head for a long time and it was good to let it out! If you enjoyed this story, short as it was, you might also enjoy my other Draco/Hermione fics, 'Twilight and Shadows' and 'Elusive Awakenings'.


End file.
